Homefront marketing stunt results in $7,000 fine
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has levied a $7,000 fine on the marketing company responsible for releasing 10,000 red balloons to promote Homefront at last year’s Game Developers Conference. The promotion went wrong when many of the balloons ended up in San Francisco Bay, which local residents get just a tad protective over.
The Homefront stunt involved a fake protest — with musical accompaniment — in which thousands of balloons were released with notes telling those bombarded by the luft waffes to pre-order the title at GameStop. When things went wrong, GameStop was quick to say it had “no prior knowledge” of the promotion, and THQ noted the balloons were “100 percent organic product and are 100 percent biodegradable.”
The marketing company, TrashTalkFCM, took responsibility for the incident and assisted in the cleanup. The company has 30 days to pay the fine.Homefront marketing stunt results in $7,000 fine originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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